Koffi Kouakou, 1962-2008
Biography

Koffi Kouakou was born in 1962 in Ahitou-Kongonou, Ivory Coast, into a family of goldworkers, and apprenticed under his father before relocating to Grand-Bassam in 1980 to sculpt alongside his brother. After five years of training he established an independent practice, working within the Bossoniste sculptural tradition of his ancestors.

Rather than produce the repetitive tourist carvings common among artisans of his generation, Kouakou began sculpting miniature wooden replicas of everyday electronic objects — Walkmans, telephones, record players, sewing machines — that found a ready market with tourists and expatriates by the late 1980s.

He later moved to larger figurative sculpture, in particular robot forms inspired by children's toys and action figures, worked in painted wood, plastic, metal and synthetic hair. His pieces entered the "Clubs of Bamako" project and were exhibited internationally, including at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, and institutions in New York. He died in 2008.

source: CAAC — The Pigozzi Collection of African Art (caacart.com)